Lijo after the suspension: ”A slave knows what happens when he confronts his master”

World Padel Tour confirmed the sanction against Pablo Lijo, dismissing his appeal. In an interview with Ole, the Spanish player considered the punishment "disproportionate" and assured that the reasons for it are personal.

Pablo Lijo, the 46th-ranked player in the world, will miss the first 12 events of the year of the WPT circuit due to the ratification of the sanction imposed by the tour after the events that took place in the Buenos Aires Masters.

The Galician player will not be able to play any WPT tournament until the end of May, and although he knows that he should have been sanctioned, he believes that the extreme of it is due to something more than the gestures made to the public of La Rural. 

— Everything became mediatic, and the World Padel Tour got angry with me. I started a war, and I knew perfectly well that if I messed up, something would happen. I made a mistake, and they took advantage of it to take revenge and exercise their power," he told Ole.

“Disproportionate sanction”

In October 2022, Lijo published a letter harshly criticizing the World Padel Tour and its Deputy President, Alex Corretja. In that letter, he ironically used the metaphor of the World Padel Tour being a master and the players its slaves.

— This has nothing to do with what happened on a padel court but is a bigger, more personal, disproportionate sanction. A slave knows perfectly well what happens when he confronts his master.

Faced with the impossibility of participating in World Padel Tour tournaments, Lijo can complete the Premier Padel dates with tournaments on the A1 Padel circuit.

— My priority is Premier Padel, and I can't commit to anyone until the tournament dates come out. I see that the circuit (A1 Padel) is well set up, and I would like to play it. Why not?